1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image-forming substrate coated with a layer of microcapsules filled with dye or ink, on which an image is formed by selectively squashing or breaking microcapsules in the layer of microcapsules, and also relates an image-forming apparatus using such an image-forming substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional type of image-forming substrate coated with a layer of microcapsules filled with dye or ink, a shell of each microcapsule is formed from a suitable photo-setting resin, and an optical image is recorded and formed as a latent image on the layer of microcapsules by exposing it to light rays in accordance with image-pixel signals. Then, the latent image is developed by exerting a pressure on the layer of microcapsules. Namely, the microcapsules, which are not exposed to the light rays, are broken, whereby the dye or ink is discharged from the broken microcapsules, and thus the latent image is visually developed by the discharging of the dye or ink.
The formation of the image on the layer of microcapsules is performed by producing image-pixel dots in accordance with image-pixel signals. Each of the image-pixel dots has a larger diameter than that of the microcapsules, and thus plural microcapsules are included in each image-pixel dot area. Each of the image-pixel dots is developed or colored by breaking the microcapsules included in the corresponding image-pixel dot area, and the colored image-pixel dot merely exhibits a given constant density. Namely, it is unknown to vary a density of the colored image-pixel dot per se.
Also, each of the conventional image-forming substrates must be packed so as to be protected from being exposed to light, resulting in a wastage of materials. Further, the image-forming substrates must be handled such that they are not subjected to excess pressure due to the softness of unexposed microcapsules, resulting in an undesired discharging of the dye or ink.